Garden of the Villa Ephrussi; a beautiful garden on the Cote d'Azur

Visit Villa and gardens Ephrussi de Rothschild

The Villa and gardens Ephrussi de Rothschild are situated between Nice and Monaco in the Alpes-Maritime department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France.

The villa and gardens overlook the Mediterranean sea and are simply stunning. The villa is one of the best of the listed buildings on the French Riviera.

Visit the gardens of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

The Villa Ephrussi is on the Cap Ferrat which became a popular holiday spot at the beginning of the last century and is home to many fabulous houses. The Villa Ephrussi is the only one of these wealthy residences open to the public and is well worth the visit. It is filled with works of art collected by Beatrice Ephrussi. The Villa is now owned by the Fine Arts Academy of France. If you are in the area be sure to go - both the gardens and villa are fabulous.

The villa overlooks the Cote d'Azur and so whilst you walk around the gardens you not only get to admire the garden themselves, you get stunning views over the sea and rugged coastline. There are nine gardens to explore: a formal French-style garden, a Japanese garden, an exotic garden, a rose garden, a stone garden, a Florentine garden, a Sevres garden, a Provencal garden and a Spanish garden.

Immediately in front of the lovely pink villa is a large formal french garden created in the shape of a ship's deck. The garden's incorporate many classic aspect of formal French garden design such as a central axis, symmetry, water features and plants such as clipped hedges and masses of colourful bedding plants.

Next to this are the wonderfully exotic Spanish and Florentine gardens with in the Spanish garden a covered patio, ponds containig papyrus and bird of paradise plants and arum lillies. The heady fragrance of honeysuckles fills the air.

Beyond here is the wonderful Japanese garden with all the traditional features of Japanese design including raked gravel, a natural pond, ferns and azaleas and Japanese ornaments.

The dramatic Exotic garden is filled with many different varieties of cacti and succulents and the size of some of these is simply incredible. Next to this the Provencal garden is of course full of lavenders, agapanthus, olive trees and pine trees.

At the tip of the garden, jutting out to sea is the rose garden which is ablaze with colour especially in May and June. Two excellent viewpoints over the sea are here too.

Each garden is beautifully planted and complemented by various architectural structures such as pergolas, fountains, stone arches, a temple etc. No expense has been spared in the creation of these gardens. Among the highlights are the musical fountains which spring into action every 10 minutes in the French garden.

Villa Ephrussi Garden Guide:

The garden is open all year round from 10am to 6pm except for July and August when it is open from 10am to 7pm and November to February when it closes in the morning on weekdays.

Entrance to the villa and gardens is 14 euros for adults, 11 euros for children and free to under 7s.

This garden is situated 10km from Nice and 15km from Monaco.

There is a tea room and a restaurant on site and so you can enjoy a cup of tea or lunch overlooking the beautiful Bay of Villefranche.